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Friday August 13, 2004

Celebrity Jews

by benyamin cohen

Havin’ a simcha

Stepping on the glass under the chuppah is so passé. Now, it seems, everyone wants to have a “Kabbalah-themed” wedding. Recent news reports reveal that Britney Spears is considering the mystical maneuver. As well, Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher may be planning a kabbalistic walk down the aisle when they make a Rosh Hashanah pilgrimage to Israel next month. Just one question: How does a Kabbalah wedding differ from a Jewish wedding and why are so many non-Jews interested in them? OK, we admit, that was two questions.

Let’s clone Natalie

Dr. Avner Herschlag, better known as Natalie Portman’s dad, is shopping around a script called “Misconception,” a thriller about a mad doctor who swipes the eggs of the first female American president. In the film, the mad doctor holds the eggs hostage until the president comes out in favor of human cloning. Hey, that’s not such a bad idea.

Spielberg delays ‘Vengeance’

The New York Post reported last week that fear of terrorism was behind Steven Spielberg’s postponement of production on “Vengeance,” his docudrama on the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre in which Palestinians killed 11 Israeli athletes. However, Spielberg’s spokesman denied such reports, saying that the postponement was caused by script changes. The postponement has caused Ben Kingsley to drop out of the film for scheduling conflicts. Meanwhile at press time, spielbergfilms.com reported that a new writer is working on the script — Tony Kushner.

Searching for Bobby Fischer

Chess champ and U.S. fugitive Bobby Fischer is seeking a country to call home. “He likes Serbia-Montenegro, he has spent considerable time there,” Canadian journalist John Bosnitch told Reuters. “It’s a chess-playing nation and he is revered there. He’d be a welcome guest and a happy visitor.” It should be noted that Fischer has also caused some controversy over the years for uttering anti-Semitic remarks, despite the fact that his mother is Jewish. Fischer, whose father was German, is said to also be looking into getting German citizenship.

Tom and Jerry

Lions Gate Television is shopping around a talk show idea that would be co-hosted by former MTV prankster Tom Green and the sultan of slut Jerry Springer. The series, which would be called “Fairly Unbalanced,” would be a week-in-review type show that would discuss current events in ‘‘a populist way, from the off-center perspective of two larger-than-life, outrageous, irreverent and endearing personalities, who don’t always agree,’’ Lions Gate Television President Kevin Beggs told the Hollywood Reporter. Springer, who is Jewish, is making news of his own. At the recent Democratic National Convention, he told reporters that he is considering a run for governor of Ohio in 2006. Can anyone say neo-Nazi mud fights at the governor’s mansion?

Columnist Benyamin Cohen is the editor of Jewsweek magazine (www.jewsweek.com).

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